Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Communicating with Travelers Unit 8:...

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood

Communicating with Travelers

Unit 8: Improving Transit Quality


Outline

• Ways of communicating with travelers

• Impact of real-time information

• Service alerts

• New transit info tools


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• As a transit user, what information is important for you to know?

• How should this information be shared?


TCQSM – Basic Information

• Passengers need to know– How to use transit service?– Where to go to access it?– How to pay fare and how much?– Where to get off near their destination?– Any transfers required?– When services are scheduled to depart and

arrive?• Service Alerts


TCQSM – Means of Info

• Printed - timetables, maps, service change notices• Posted - system maps or notices• Audible announcements - stops, train directions, fare

zone • Visual displays - on-board or in stations• Transit agency staff - station agents or tourist info staff• Telephone information - info lines, automated

menus, SMS• Online information• Smartphone apps - trip planning, fare info, real-time• Transit infrastructure - shelters, signage


History of Schedules

Schedule

Paper Schedules Digitization Interactivity

109:36


Moving toward real-time

• Schedule information is no longer enough• Customers need to know when the vehicle is

coming to trust the service• More passengers have mobile devices to

access information


Smartphone Ownership

2009 2010 2011 20120

102030405060708090

100

United StatesCTA

TriMet

NJTRANSIT LAC MTA

St. Louis Metro

Year

Perc

enta

ge


Smartphone Non-Smartphone No Cell Phone

65 +

51 - 64

46 - 50

41 - 45

36 - 40

31 - 35

25 - 30

19 - 24Under

180% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

49%

58%

58%

62%

70%

71%

77%

81%

69%

33%

35%

34%

34%

24%

23%

20%

17%

22%

18%

7%

8%

6%

6%

9%

n = 51

n = 339

n = 161

n = 148

n = 144

n = 185

n = 249

n = 303

n = 58

Cell Phone Type based on Age


Cell Phone Ownership

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

United StatesKing County

Metro

TriMetNJTRANSIT

LAC MTA

St. Louis Metro

Year

Perc

enta

ge


Filling in the gaps in mobile access


How does real time information change user perceptions and behavior?

IMPACTS OF REAL-TIME


Real-time Information


Seattle - Change in Satisfaction

“I no longer sit with pitted stomach wondering where is the bus. It's less stressful simply knowing it's nine minutes away, or whatever the case.”


Seattle - Perception of Safety

• Perception of Safety– 79% no change– 18% somewhat safer– 3% much safer

• Safety correlated with gender– χ2=19.458– p-value=0.001

Men

Women

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Somewhat Less SafeNo ChangeSomewhat More SafeMuch Safer


Seattle - Perceived and Actual Wait Time

• Without real time, perceived wait > actual wait• With real time, perceived wait = actual wait• Value of real time >> more frequent service

Group Real Time Schedule Difference T-stat (p-value)

Mean Typical Wait 7.54 9.86 2.32 5.50 (0.00)

Aggravation Level 3.35 3.29 -0.05 -0.24 (0.81)

Actual Wait Time 9.23 11.21 1.98 2.17 (0.03)

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood18

• Method• Used panel regression to assess ridership impact in city with gradual

roll out of RTI on a route by route or borough by borough basis

• Conclusions• Real-time Information lead to ~2 % increase in ridership

• In NYC, average increase of ~115 rides per route per weekday (median of 1.6%)

• Increase in NYC mostly on largest quartile of routes (median of 2.3%)

• Limitations• Too Short Timescale – could take years to see true impacts• Aggregate Analysis

Chicago and New York City

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood19

Tampa

• Method• Used before-after control group design to test if individual

riders were taking more trips after getting real-time information

• Web-based survey, participants were asked about experience using real-time information

• Significant improvements in the waiting experience• Decreases in self-reported usual wait times• Increases in satisfaction with wait times and reliability

• Little evidence supporting a change in transit trips• Only surveyed existing riders


SERVICE ALERTSTelling riders if something goes wrong with service


Service Alerts


Service Alerts Today

• Websites• Emails• Text-

message• Facebook• Twitter


Service Alerts Today


Ideal Service Alerts

• Ideally Inform riders about alerts– Real-time– Individually

• Barriers– Data in standard format– Easy input without human chain of information


Service Alerts in apps


What should the next transit info tools be?

NEW TRANSIT INFO TOOLS


Google Transit


GTFS

General Transit Feed Specification

routes.txt

stops.txt

trips.txt

stop_times.txt calendar.txt

agency.txt

shapes.txt


HopStop


OpenTripPlanner


Mapnificent


Walk Score: Apartment Search


How does Open Data help?

Agency responds to special requests by

developers

Small subset of riders find this specific tool useful.

Transit Agency

App Developers

Riders

DATA

DATAAnyone can access data

Many riders access a diverse market of tools powered by GTFS.

Agency produces data and opens it

once.


Open Data Trends (2013)


Major points from the TCRP Synthesis reading

• What else did you learn from the TCRP Synthesis on real-time transit information?


Major points from the TCRP Synthesis reading

• Critical consideration is agency’s ability to develop, manage, and maintain mobile applications in-house or manage third-party application development and services.

• Strong relationship between open-data approach and resources to create useful and accurate real-time mobile applications.

• Real-time transit information on mobile devices more prevalent than use of other traditional media (signs, interactive voice response)

• Not all existing and potential customers will have mobile devices, and not all applications will satisfy the needs of all customers.

• Personalization of information is critical to the success of providing information on mobile devices.


Conclusion

• Real-time information increases the perceived safety and decreases perceived wait time.

• Service alerts allow agencies to communicate issues and delays to passengers.

• With the opening of transit data, a plethora of applications have sprung.


Reference

The materials in this lecture were taken from:• TCRP Report 165, “Transit Capacity and Quality of Service

Manual, 3rd edition”, 2013.• Ferris, B., Watkins, K., and Borning, A. (2010) “OneBusAway:

Results from Providing Real-Time Arrival Information for Public Transit.” Proceedings of CHI.

• Various papers from K. Watkins research group at Georgia Tech• Wong, James, et al. "Open Transit Data: State of the practice and

experiences from participating agencies in the United States." Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting. No. 13-0186. 2013.

• TCRP Synthesis 91, Use and Deployment of Mobile Device Technology for Real-time Transit Information, http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_syn_91.pdf

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_syn_91.pdf

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Communicating with Travelers Unit 8:...

Documents

Transcript of Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Communicating with Travelers Unit 8:...